President Barack Obama, in the interview given last weekend to The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman, provided illumination on his foreign policy thinking, at this moment of fraught drama in both Iraq and Ukraine, but the counsels concerning the two didn’t match.

This week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: The Mideast scholar breaks down the Gaza crisis as Israel sends in troops. Also: The fight to keep the Internet free and fair, and an inside look at the Koch brothers’ secretive dynasty.

This week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: The Mideast scholar breaks down the Gaza crisis as Israel sends in ground troops. Also: The fight to keep the Internet free and fair, and an inside look at the Koch brothers’ secretive dynasty.

British actor Gary Oldman unleashed a torrent of instantly regrettable remarks about Hollywood culture in the latest edition of Playboy, couching his statements in that tediously familiar type of defiant language so often brandished by the clueless.

NBC has released a score of snippets from the network’s interview with Edward Snowden (posted after the jump), and one of the main takeaways is this, in the leaker’s own words: “I may have lost my ability to travel, but I’ve gained the ability to go to sleep at night and to put my head on the pillow and feel comfortable that I’ve done the right thing even when it was the hard thing. And I’m comfortable with that.”

Comedian-actor-writer Russell Brand took on a range of topics including spirituality, materialism, politics and revolution during an interview at Cambridge University’s student union in England last week.

Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges recently interviewed three former inmates of a New Jersey jail to learn about the way prisoners communicate among themselves through the plumbing—the “bowl phone.” Click to the inside page for an audio recording and a transcript of the interview.

Journalist Robert Kaiser has written a case study of the passage of Dodd-Frank, the legislation that kind of sort of took a shot at maybe re-regulating Wall Street (but not really). He tells Judy Woodruff, “It was upsetting to me as a citizen to realize how few members understood the issues they were dealing with.”

In these audio excerpts from their extended conversation in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, Chris Hedges asks Julian Assange about legal strategy and the WikiLeaks founder’s thoughts on Pfc. Bradley Manning.

Higher education must be understood as a democratic public sphere—a space in which education enables students to develop a keen sense of prophetic justice, claim their moral and political agency, utilize critical analytical skills, and cultivate an ethical sensibility through which they learn to respect the rights of others.

“Public institutions are being attacked because they are public, offer spaces for producing critical thought, emphasize human needs over economic needs, and because they are one of the few vital institutions left that can function as democratic public spheres,” the critic and Truthout contributor said in a recent interview.

Ray Bradbury, who died Tuesday night at the age of 91, spoke in 2008 with Truthdig’s Steve Wasserman about his books and the passions that drove his writing. The video, text excerpts and full transcript follow.

Things are looking up for two-tour Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen, who was injured Oct. 25 during a police raid on the Occupy Oakland encampment, where he was taking part in demonstrations against the corporatization of the American political system. (more)

Occupy Wall Street protester Jesse LaGreca, our Truthdigger of the Week, responded to the provocative questions of a Fox News reporter with such clarity and fortitude in support of the movement that his message gained viral attention.

Writer-director Rashaad Ernesto Green tells us about why he set his film “Gun Hill Road” in the Bronx, finding a transgender actress to play the teen, how anyone who has ever been a teenager should be able to identify with the film, and the power of art.

Truthdig Editor-in-Chief Robert Scheer and FireDogLake contributor David Dayen appeared Monday morning on Uprising Radio to discuss the costs and consequences of the debt ceiling and deficit reduction deal struck Sunday by President Obama and Congress.

The writer and philosopher Wendell Berry, armed with little more than a copy of William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” and his conscience, has been camped out for three days with a handful of other activists in the governor’s outer office in Frankfort, Ky.

In a BBC interview with Eric Schmidt, Google’s outgoing chief executive, Schmidt spelled out his ambitions for Google in China as well as declaring that the search giant will deny government attempts to censor WikiLeaks documents.

Truthdig editors, contributors and collaborators share their insights into the corporate takeover of the free and fair Internet and the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Plus: Richard Schickel’s picks for the best movies of the year.

Truthdig editors, contributors and collaborators share their insights into the corporate takeover of the free and fair Internet and the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Plus: Richard Schickel’s picks for the best movies of the year.

“The last American soldier will leave Iraq” after the pre-negotiated 2011 deadline, regardless of any rumblings among American officials, says Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The status of forces agreement governing the U.S. military presence in Iraq, Maliki adds, “is not subject to extension, not subject to alteration, it is sealed, it expires on Dec. 31 [2011].”

President Obama’s take on gay marriage may get less absurd. Obama told The Advocate that his view is “evolving” and he struggles with his oft-repeated belief that marriage ought to be between a man and a woman (because such marriages never fail and are the will of the same supreme being who digs slavery).

Handily aligning with the unleashing of The Beatles’ music into the iTunes computerverse, as well as with the 30th anniversary of John Lennon’s death, Rolling Stone magazine has published heretofore unreleased portions of the slain Beatle’s final interview ... (continued)

Apparently New Yorkers just don’t want to hear a banjo-playing comedian talk art. After an hour-long Q-and-A with brainy comedian Steve Martin, who was reportedly too high brow, the 92nd St. YMCA Y in New York felt compelled to offer its audience a refund. (Correction: Earlier, this item, in its headline and text, referred to the YMCA; actually, Martin appeared at a facility of the 92nd Street Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association.)

“The Adderall Diaries” author isn’t one to hold back, as readers of his memoir—not to mention his tweets, blogs, “overly personal emails,” essays and online magazine, The Rumpus—know well. Here, he opens up about his literary projects, his hyperlocal politics and the role of narcissism in his work.

The veteran journalist talks to Truthdig’s James Harris about his new book, which zeroes in on a war-averse president struggling to impose order on chaos abroad without losing his grip on the home front.

The veteran journalist talks to Truthdig’s James Harris about his new book, which zeroes in on a war-averse president struggling to impose order on chaos abroad without losing his grip on the home front.

In appearances on MSNBC and KCRW, Truthdig Editor Robert Scheer is coming out with rhetorical guns blazing to talk about the economic crisis, Wall Street pandering, and the culpability of both parties in all of it.

I’d gone to Atlantic City in August of 2009 to see Crosby, Stills and Nash to be reminded of the exquisite outrage that they, along with Neil Young, had so famously hurled into the hellish maelstrom that was the Vietnam War…

As part of his eleventh-hour push to win Americans over on the touchy topic of health care reform, President Barack Obama is throwing himself into the lion’s den. That’s right, the president is going willingly to Fox News to get the “fair and balanced” treatment from Bret Baier on Wednesday.

This clip is, as they say across the pond, brilliant. A humorous fellow by the name of Charlie Brooker has cracked the not-so-secret code to how one properly reports the news, and it involves meaningful hand gestures, well-timed freezes, man-on-the-street reportage and headless shots of overweight people milling through metropolitan foot traffic. Watch and learn!

America’s most famous crybaby was just vicious to Sarah Palin. He asked her who her favorite founding father was ... and ... she ... froze. In other news: Privacy is for old people, it looks like the Jews didn’t build the pyramids, and someone was arrested for interfering with Tiger Woods’ right to sell Gatorade.